If You Like Disappointment, You'll Love Disney Infinity 3DS

Released alongside its console cousins at the exact same price point, Disney Infinity for the 3DS is a collection of sad mini-games featuring characters that are much more interesting on the Wii, Wii U, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

There are absolutely no Metacritic reviews for the 3DS version of Disney Infinity, subtitled Toy Box Challenge, as of this writing. I had to specially request a copy of this version with my PlayStation 3 review copy, and even then it didn't make it into the initial shipment.

This is the game Disney never really talked about. I certainly wouldn't have, were I them. There's an awful lot of fun stuff happening over on the consoles. Why detract from that? I mean, at some point it would have been prudent to mention the massive difference between this game and the other versions, but that would have just led to people not buying this one because it's shit. No company puts out a product they don't want anyone to buy.

So while we're feeling sorry for the PlayStation 3 Disney Infinity players who had to wait over two days to play without losing their progress, the Wii folks disappointed by the lack of co-op in adventure modes, and the Wii U crowd who were sold a game that promised Classic and Pro Controller support but actually had neither, save some sympathy for the kids who went for the 3DS version. There's no patching it better.

During Sunday morning's Disney Infinity launch, I warned a mum at GameStop away from the 3DS version in favour of the Wii. I've been feeling great about that all week. Now I'm warning the rest of you.

The sad thing is they get it as wrong as Skylanders gets it right. I have the first games on 3ds, and they are both distinct from the console ports, and enjoyable in their own right. Even the cute mini-portal is great! And since the story IS different, you can kinda feel like you are getting more out of your figures by getting it. Win/win. It is fun, to boot! This... Well, Disney Infinity continues to seem like a train wreck to me, and as much as I love Skylanders, and love Disney IPs, I have little desire to play it. If it really takes off with user generated content (the one thing I .do. approve of!) I may reconsider, but as it is, it's a mediocre game, with mediocre characters, almost no females (Skylanders, to be fair, also suffered from this, but has since made stive to even things out...), and including the only mostly racist Lone Ranger Tonto... Ugh